Domestic tourism likely to recover earlier than expected, says minister

photo: PelanconganKini

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's domestic tourism sector, badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic following the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO), will recover earlier than expected.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the optimism was attributed to the high level of compliance with the prescribed standard operating procedures (SOP) by Malaysians.

"This high level of SOP compliance provides an assurance for the people that it is safe to travel (in the country)," she said after visiting several tourist spots in the city, such as Dataran Merdeka, Eco-Forest Park and the Royal Museum.

Nancy said domestic tourism was slowly recovering from the affect of the pandemic and that tourism authorities and bodies have started going down to the ground to check on the situation at hand.

"But, right now we need to restore and recover the confidence of the people that it is safe to travel in the country while adhering the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the government," she said.

On whether the ministry is aiming for any figure on the number of domestic tourists traveling nationwide, the minister said there were not set aim, as the situation remained unpredictable.

In the Dewan Rakyat sitting two days ago, Nancy was reported to have said that the country's tourism sector is estimated to suffer losses amounting to RM45 billion this year as a result of the closure of the country's borders due to Covid-19.

She said that of the total, the international tourism segment was projected to suffer losses of more than RM31 billion while the rest was from the domestic segment.

Clarifying on nationwide hotel occupancy rates touching 75 per cent, she said the rate was for popular resorts and tourist destinations, such as in Langkawi as well as riverine and coastal locations.

"However, the average occupancy rate of hotels nationwide is 21 to 30 per cent. It is our hope that domestic travel will be a trend in the country to help our entrepreneurs and those working in hotels," she added.

Nancy also adviced the domestic tourism industries to improvise their products and services to attract more local visitors and this would in turn help to boost their business.

On the proposed international travel bubble, she said discussion involving travel from green zone countries to enter Malaysia was still ongoing.

She the government was still identifying green zone regions in Asean as well as from regions from such as Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Korea.

"We are looking into regions instead of the country itself as some countries have second wave of Covid-19 cases," she said.

-nst online.